The IAEA will conduct further inspections to “clarify the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of this nuclear material and its current location.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced the disappearance of about 2.5 tons of natural uranium from a site in Libya, France Press reported.
During their visit on Tuesday, inspectors from this UN body “discovered that 10 containers with approximately 2.5 tonnes of natural uranium in the form of uranium concentrate were not located where they had been declared by the authorities,” Director-General Rafael Grossi wrote in a report to the Member States.
The IAEA said it would carry out further inspections to “clarify the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of this nuclear material and its current location”.
Libya gave up its nuclear weapons program in 2003 under former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Since his fall in 2011 after 42 years of dictatorship, the country has been mired in a serious political crisis involving rival forces based in the east and in the west, countless militias, mercenaries scattered across the country, amid the intervention of foreign powers.
Illustrative Photo by Johannes Plenio:
